Amritsar, April 25: Simon McDonald, permanent under-secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had to apologise on Tuesday for a major gaffe when he referred Golden Temple in Amritsar as the 'Golden Mosque'. After facing backlash on social media, he apologised for his mistake and said, "I was wrong: I am sorry. I should of course have said the Golden Temple or, better, Sri Harmandir Sahib."

There was a lot of criticism as people felt that someone in such a senior position and while visiting the Sikh homeland should have been careful before making such a fundamental mistake.

He apologised for his tweet:

According to Tribune, Bhai Amrik Singh, chairman of the Sikh Federation, said, “This was a major gaffe by a top civil servant and totally unacceptable. It demonstrates a remarkable level of ignorance from someone in his position."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 25, 2018 08:56 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).